Nico Lebrun wins Xterra USA Championship

After winning the XTERRA European Tour for the last 3 years, Nico bet to move overseas to compete a full season against the bests off-road athletes in the most challenging series of XTERRA planet. And he proved this week-end that he is very close to achieve his challenge winning the XTERRA USA championship in Ogden, Utah, final stage of the XTERRA USA Cup series. His third victory in a raw in the series this season.

After a good swim despite the altitude, Nico came out of the water a minute and a half behind the leaders. It took him only a few miles to catch up the predictable leader of the day, 3-time World champion South-African Conrad Stolz, on the very demanding MTB course. But a technical problem forced him to lower the rhythm and Stolz managed to get back a few more second to reach T2 with a one-minute lead. Hopefully, the run course was the kind that Nico simply enjoys. Climbs and climbs and climbs... At mile 1.3 he had gained 13 seconds, in the next 15 minutes he made up the other 47, and for good measure added another 52 ticks to cross the line with a winning time of 2:21:57. The 4-minute gap with the rest of the field was proof of the fight those two had today and we are now looking forward to the XTERRA World championship which will take place in 4 weeks at Mauï, HI.

Lebrun and Stolz have been the two actors of the 2009 XTERRA USA Cup series, sharing 7 of the 9 stages (3 for Nico and 4 for Stolz). With his second place today, South-African managed to secure an unprecedented 7th XTERRA U. S. Pro Series title in front of Nico, second for only 10 points.